Nothing the way they touch
by WorldsWorthlessToy
Summary: They stood, facing each other. "We re going nowhere."-"No, we aren t."-"They say we re lovers."-"Phh." X Neither of them knowing how to show love, they hurt each other. They hide their bruises and tell nothing. Full summary inside. NOW WITH SEPERATORS!


**I KNOW THIS IS CHAPTER 1 OVER AGAIN!!!**

**The problem is, in my MS Word document I had those pretty ribbons to seperate the paragraphs and, of course, the document manager removed them.**

**This is the repost - with typed ribbons this time - and I highly recommend you read this instead of chapter 1!!!**

**Sorry to everyone who read chap 1 and thought I was out of my mind.  
**

Nothing - the way they touch

Summary: Neji and Tenten touch. But neither of them has learned how to touch breakable things. All they do is hurting each other, getting rid of their frustration. So they break up. But without one another, everything seems so much more shattered than before. And after a week of rain, decisions are made.

.xXx.

„So you´re going out?"

„I told you we´re not."

"But, I mean, you´re dating, aren´t you."

"We aren´t."

"But then…"

"Lee, you´re noisy."

"…"

"Sorry, I didn´t mean to be so harsh. Just stop cross-examining me."

"Right."

"…"

"But you love him, don´t you?"

"…"

"And he loves you, I´m sure of that."

"…"

"Tenten, what´s that bruise?"

"Nothing."

.xXx.

"Come in."

He did, looking around.

She closed the door behind him.

He took off his ANBU mask.

She led him to her bedroom.

He grabbed her wrists, violent.

She didn´t protest.

She gave in to his rough touches.

He didn´t say a word this night.

"You´re a couple, aren´t you?"

"Shut up."

"Don´t be like that! C´mon, I mean, one can see you´re-"

"I told you to shut up, Kiba."

"Hm? Neji, what´s that bruise?"

"Nothing."

.xXx.

"Come in."

She did, looking around.

He closed the door behind her.

She took off her ANBU mask.

He led her to his bedroom.

She clenched her hands to fists.

He didn´t defend, knowing he could break her within a second if he would.

He let himself being beaten.

She didn´t stop.

She was furious this night.

He took her hits and kicks, letting them bruise and break his skin.

She didn´t stop unless she was out of breath and out of fury.

He struggled to his feet and wiped the blood from his chin.

Her fists were shaking.

She looked at him, regretting, he knew.

There was nothing to regret.

He did worse to her, after all.

It was their way of touching each other.

.xXx.

"So you never talked?"

"He doesn´t like talking. Neither do I."

"But you are lovers, aren´t you?"

"We´re not."

"Tenten, it can´t be right. You need to talk and sort things out."

"Sakura, we´re fine. Don´t worry."

"Why was his lip swollen yesterday?"

"I don´t know."

.xXx.

They stood, facing each other.

"We´re going nowhere."

"No, we aren´t."

"They say we´re lovers."

"Phh."

"I know you don´t care what they say. But think about what we feel."

"…"

"What are we doing?"

"Hurting each other."

"So?"

"You think we should stop that?"

"What we do is only hurting both of us. It´ll be better, don´t you think?"

"Yes, I do. So, let´s stop this."

"Right."

"What´s with this face?"

"Nothing."

.xXx.

She sat on her couch

looking

at the rain that was

pouring

for hours

now

and then illuminated by

a lightening

Just a brief flashing, over the moment

it began

so harmless, kisses on the

foreheads

clashing, eyes narrowed, hands

fisted

in the sheets and she wondered if

he

thought of

her

eyes empty

like a puppet´s glass orbs

flickering in the light of

a dying candlelight

.xXx.

"You don´t look so well lately."

"I don´t…? Whatever."

"What happened?"

"Nothing."

.xXx.

He sat at his window looking

outside

and alone again

Like all the time he

spent

in the dark

and with her

and without

her

looking at him like he

was something delicate she

missed

the only chance they

had

never thought of being

together

everything hurts so much

more

without the other

looking as if he

loved

each other once, probably, but

nothing´s left to

feel

desolate without

her

making him

fly

And now for the second time in his life he

feels

something

wet

on

his

cheeks

.xXx.

"You stayed at home for a week now. Don´t you think it´s time to go out and face the world again, Tenten?"

"Leave me alone, will you, Sakura?"

"But that can´t be healthy! All you´re doing is sitting here, you´re eating really rarely, not to mention sleeping! You´ve been watching the rain for days now! What happened between you two?"

.xXx.

"Hey, come on, don´t look at me like that. All I did was asking you why you´re acting so strange lately."

"You´re annoying, Lee. Leave."

"I don´t believe that! You´ve always been so calm and everything and lately you seem absolutely imbalanced. What the hell happened that would agitate a person as collected as you this much?"

.xXx.

Nothing.

.xXx.

She felt like

sleepwalking

out of her room and onto

the streets

still wet from the rain during

the last week

had been hell for

her

becoming more and more empty as

if

something was sucking her life out of

her

friends would ask stupid questions to

show

their concern and that they didn´t get

anything

she could do she would

try

and get him back and

then

she felt like being looked at and

suddenly

he was there, in front of her, on his way to

her house to

talk to her,

they said, whatever happened, just talk to her and

she

couldn´t believe he was really

missing her

as much as

she

missed

him

.xXx.

"How have you been doing?"

A silly question to ask. They both knew.

"Could have been better."

A silly answer to give. But she couldn´t help it.

"Looks like whatever we wanted, this was not it, huh?"

He shook his head. "So what do you want?"

She looked at him, not even blinking.

"You. This way or another.

It may sound stupid, but I wouldn´t mind even if we

went back to beating the bloody shit out of each other

as long as it means that we are together again."

He nodded.

"Neither would I.

But what about a new beginning and an… attempt to touch each other…

differently?"

She shrugged.

"I don´t know how this is done. Neither do you."

"No, we don´t. We don´t know how to touch delicate things

that can break."

She smiled.

"Let´s learn it then."

.xXx.

The sun was forcing its way through the thick layers of grey rainclouds.

The gentle warm light caressed the land, dancing over wet grass and rivers and trees.

It grazed a window, partly passing it by, partly being reflected onto the wet concrete ground.

It touched their skin.

Behind the window

in the soft light

they touched

(his hair flowing around her like a waterfall)

not with fists anymore,

(her arms being the harbor he always craved)

but with worshipping,

caressing

fingertips.

.xXx.

"Wow, you look much better the last days. The week off did you good, didn´t it?"

"Yes, it did. Thanks, Ino."

"But hey, that can´t be all there is to it! You look like god promised heaven to you! What happened?"

.xXx.

"You seem better."

"You think so, Lee?"

"Indeed! Something must have happened! So what was it?"

.xXx.

Nothing.

Just that…

Well.

One can tell by the way they look at each other.

And if not, he can see their hands touch.

Or he can see

none of them

having bruises again.

Or the way they smile.

.xXx.

PS: Okay. First, I didn´t really want to upload this when I wrote it. But now I made up my mind and I hope it´s worth it and some people get something out of it, whatever that may be. I think Neji and Tenten just can´t be the kind of "we-confess-and-then-everything-is-flowers-and-rainbows"-couple. Neji has never learned how to love or how to show love and in this story, neither has Tenten. Therefore they have a hard time being "together". But I think they canteach each other as well as they could destroy each other. The "nothing" stands for the silence that so often conceals peoples´ real feelings.

PPS: I know these "poem-like" parts are a bit confusing, but I hope you like (or at least understand) them nevertheless. I did them because after losing each other, both Neji´s and Tenten´s thoughts are messed up and shattered so they can´t even make a coherent thought. They need each other.

PPPS: Thanks for reading. I apologize for the mistakes I made - not a native speaker, blah blah. Whatever grammatical errors the poem parts feature though are intentional.

Toy.


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